


It Wasn't Quite Me

by sushisock



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Diary, Jack's perspective, Loneliness, Love, M/M, Retelling, Romance, Tales from the Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands AU, borderlands - Freeform, rhack - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 03:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6036825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sushisock/pseuds/sushisock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being defeated for a second time, Handsome Jack returns to the electronic home that Nakayama created for him, only this time there's someone else sharing his space, and they want him to answer for his misdeeds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Too Late

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fan fiction, sorry if it sucks. Comments are much appreciated and I hope you guys like this, I wanted to give the story a 'Handsome Perspective' in which we get to see things from Holo-Jack's point of view, as I'd like to think he doesn't always say or do what he really wants to...  
> This first chapter continues on from (SPOILER) Jack's 'death' in episode 5 of Tales From The Borderlands, so if you haven't played the game thoroughly, a spoiler alert is in place throughout much of this story.

“No-no please, please! Please don’t do this!”

There was no point in arguing at this point, Rhys was through with this shit, and Jack knew it. That didn't stop him from trying though.

“No Rhys, you-you don’t know what it’s like!”

Any second now, Jack would be gone, removed from any plane of existence that Nakayama could have possibly prepared him for, a sort of limbo between living and dead, or in this instance, dead and slightly less dead. As Rhys became more determined to finally get Jack out of his head, the former CEO of Hyperion became more desperate.

“Please…Hey! HEY! I'm on my knees here.”

The time between Jack’s death and his digital resurrection had been unbearable for him. Nakayama had failed to create a way to keep him occupied while in his non-living, non-existing, non-everything form inside his cybernetic drive home. For months, or what felt had felt like years, Jack had sat, or stood, there was no way to tell, he simply was. There was nothing that he could particularly remember about the place where he had non-lived out his new non-life, only that it was very loud and full of static, with the occasional foreign sound penetrating what he now assumed to be Nakayama’s pocket: an occasional howl or roar that he deduced could only come from a skag; a high-pitched and very annoying voice that often muttered unintelligible strings of sentences about ‘curiosities’ and ‘renovations’; something about a Vault key, and $10 million…

The one thing that Jack remembered clearly from his digital home was how excruciatingly boring it was, along with the paranoia inducing loneliness that comes with being trapped in a void of intense nothingness. If he had been left any longer in that vast wasteland of useless code, he would have gone (more) insane, and he wasn't going to let himself return to the worst place he had ever experienced. Even the bandit camps of Pandora were more enjoyable than Nakayama’s flash drive.

“Please don’t send me back there…It’s not like they say…”

Jack was begging now, and in a moment of pure fear, he tried to appeal to Rhys, but it was too late. After what he had done, it was surprising that Jack hadn't been killed again sooner.

“There’s nothing…there’s absolutely nothing there…don’t do this.”

Rhys looked at his disgraced former hero, his ECHO-eye dangling precariously out of his empty iris. For a second, he felt almost sorry for the man, considering that this was the last time he would speak to him. Despite whatever feelings of admiration, of fear, of companionship that the former salary man had for Jack, he knew that he had to die, for his sake as well as literally everyone else’s. Rhys grabbed hold of his final piece of cybernetic implants and looked forlornly at his boss’ flickering, blue reincarnation:

“I win Jack…it’s over.”

The regret and hopelessness in the older man’s face quickly turned to anger as he lunged forward in a frantic attempt to somehow attack his host, but Rhys was already tugging at the string of wires connecting his ECHO-eye implant to the back of his real eye, meaning that Jack simply phased through him as he was disconnected from the mind of the younger man, and landed with a painful slam on what felt like a metal slab, sending his head into an agonising throb and the rest of his body into a dull numbness. 

Then Jack heard a small cracking noise, and everything turned blindingly white.


	2. All Too Familiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack wakes up to find that he's not in the horrific expanse that he expected, and is confronted by a familiar setting, as well as a mysterious interrogator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Two, here we go!

Seconds turned into minutes turned into hours turned into days turned into weeks turned into months…okay maybe that’s a little dramatic, but it was a good 42 minutes before Jack finally awoke from a stress induced coma that left him feeling stiff and confused. Where was he…what was he? The last thing that he remembered was staring into Rhys’ right eye as the other one was slowly taken apart, focusing on the hypnotising mixture of terror and righteousness that was apparent in the weary face of the broken former-employee of the Hyperion Corporation. Jack was often hypnotised by the younger man, and after watching his every move over the course of the past week or so, he had grown a certain fondness towards him, a fondness that was becoming harder and harder to suppress…

“No, idiot, he betrayed you! You handed him glory and success on a diamond platter and what did he do? He killed you, so nice job holding back on that plan, genius!”

Jack had been stupid and neglectful, and once again he had let his feelings get in the way of his business. If he had stuffed that endoskeleton inside of Rhys when he’d had the chance then Jack would have still been alive; slightly less handsome, but alive nonetheless.

“He was sat right there! He wouldn't have even expected it, but you had to do your liiiittle monologue before poor Rhysie was turned into a hero, and in doing so, let him get away! Oh-ho-ho you've done it now, there ain’t gonna be no more chances.”

There was no way that he could be recovered now; Rhys would have to be an imbecile not to destroy his ECHO-eye, and it was incredibly doubtful that Nakayama would have somehow created a backup file for Jack’s AI consciousness.

“End of the road, you’re gonna be stuck here forever, lost in your own thoughts, with no bandits to kill, no executives to patronise, no Rhys, just you. You’ll start to turn insane soon enough, although maybe the madness has already settled in, you are talking to yourself…”

It was true, the room was completely empty except for Jack. Wait a second, room? As Jack finally adjusted his eyes to the slowly materialising surroundings he was vaguely reminded of the time that he appeared in the caravan, down on Pandora, and accidently caught Rhys changing. He was sure that he’d said something insulting or slightly demeaning in a weak attempt at humour, but it had only come out sounding nervous and strained as Jack had quickly tried to remain composed at the sight of a naked Rhys, who was just as embarrassed, but more obvious about it.

“Stop. Thinking. About. That. Asshole! You knew from the start that he would never truly equal your power, for the most part he was simply a tool to get you back to Helios. And he did, except he then decided to send it crashing down to Pandora!” Ready to fly into a bout of conflicted rage, Jack began to move his body, and found that he could, in fact, stand up. His back was aching and sore from lying down on the hard, callous floor, which was new to him; the last time he was wiped out from existence there were no floors or walls or anything really. Now, however, there seemed to be a magnificent hall being created around him, with familiar relics and furniture manifesting to sit on tables and in cabinets and on a large, ornate desk…

“How did Nakayama get in Handsome Jack’s office- MY OFFICE! Someone has some FUCKING explaining to do! Hehe-he-hey kiddooo! Was this you? Think you’d play a little trick on old Jack, huh? We-he-he-ll…I don’t think its FUNNY!” Precious items, heirlooms and artefacts were destroyed before they could become more than glowing figments of energy as Jack began tearing the room apart in a feeble attempt to uncover the master behind his torment, but all he found was a lost chip that had gathered mould and dust underneath his desk and a wall in which he could slide down in defeat. Maybe he had gone crazy, and with no one around to fear him or do his bidding, it wasn’t even the good kind of crazy, it was simply the lonely, useless kind.

“Okay, I get it, I screwed up my chance of being a decent human being and got myself killed…again. Look, pumpkin, if it’s you up there…then I just wanted to say, Rhysie…” Jack looked up at the high ceiling as if he was trying to talk to some godlike being, “…go to HELL you goodie-two-shoes piece of traitorous garbage!”

The office was once again wrecked from top to bottom, but after everything was destroyed, it simply reconstructed itself soon enough. Jack, however, did not reconstruct himself, as so was left, exhausted and hopeless, sat at his desk with an annoyed look on his face. This was his life now, he decided. Get mad, get violent, rest, repeat. It was all he could think of to pass the time, and it was working, he was sure that he must have been here for at least a couple of hours, 3 or 4 maybe, he wasn’t even sure how the concept of time worked in this place.

He sank lower and lower in his luxurious office chair. “I gotta hand it to ya, cupcake…however you did this, you did it well…I could be in my real office now and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference…not that I'm trying to…” Jack failed to stifle a yawn. “…compliment you or anything…I still…hate…you…”

* * *

 

Jack woke up before he’d even realised he was sleeping, and had a moment of brief frustration as he saw that the room was once again in pristine condition, however any anger quickly subsided as he noticed one item in the room that had not been returned to its previous state: a photo frame stood, cracked beyond repair, holding a picture of a young girl with short, black hair, smiling with obvious affection towards the photographer. Jack softened and ran his hands through his greying hair, resting his elbows on the desk.

“My angel…” he sighed, burying his face in his arms and leaning his entire upper body onto the wooden surface…

“Who was she?” Jack sat bolt upright and instinctively reached for a gun that he didn’t have. He scanned the room and found no apparent source for the voice.

“Who wants to know?” Jack spat at the disembodied voice, which really meant he spat in no direction in particular. It was important for him to keep up his attitude, especially if this really was Rhys’ doing, or maybe even Nakayama’s, if he had somehow found a way to bring himself back to life in order to bring Jack back to life, which really seems a little excessive.

After some deliberation, the voice replied, “A friend, I want to help you,” Ha, a friend. Jack didn’t have friends, none that were still alive anyway, “I can bring you back, Jack, but first, you’re gonna have to tell me what happened after you died.”

Jack laughed hysterically, as if the voice had just told the funniest joke in the galaxy or commanded that a basket of skag pups be tossed down a river.

“Ohoho, that’s all it takes? You’re pretty obsessive kiddo, but fine, I’ll tell you MY side of the story. Strap in cupcake, its gonna take a while…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are liking this so far, please comment if you like it and want me to do more, I'm really excited to get into Jack's narration in the next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> So there's the first chapter, I know it's short but I'll try and get the next chapters out asap, I just wanted to create a little build-up before we dive into the good stuff. Other than that, thanks for reading!


End file.
